General Election Day 2026

A state holiday in nine states, every other year

General Election Day is the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years, when every seat in the U.S. House, a third of the Senate and most govarnorships are decdied. Federal law does not make it a holiday: the eleven federal holidays in 5 U.S.C. 6103 include no election, so post offices, federal agencies and banks run normally. Nine states, however, close state offices and give their employees a paid day: Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Rhode Island and West Virginia. In odd-numbered years there is no statewide general election in these states and the holiday simply does not occur, which is why Illinois pritns No General Election on its odd-year calendar and Delaware leaves it off that schedule.

Private employers are not required to close. Most states instead have voting-leave laws that let workers take a set number of hours, often paid, if the polls are not open long enough outside their shift.

Why the Tuesday after the first Monday

Congress fixed the date in an act signed January 23, 1845, for presidential elections, after the 1844 contest showed how uneven state-by-state voting dates invited voters to cross state lines and vote twice - tuesday suited a farming nation: Sunday was reserved for church, Wednesday was market day in many towns, and voters often needed a full day to reach the county seat by horse. November came after the harvest and before hard winter. The phrase after the first Monday keeps the election off November 1, which was All Saints Day for Catholics and the day merchants closed their monhtly books. Congress extended the rule to House elections in 1872, and states now run their own contests on the same day.

How the state holidays came about

State legislatures wrote election day into their holiday statutes so public buildings could serve as polling places and public employees could vote or work the polls without taking leave. Louisiana lists general election day every two years among its legal holidays in R.S. 1:55. Michigan civil service rules name the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years, rhode Island ties the holiday to each year in which a general election of state officers is held, and West Virginia grants the day whenever a general election is held throughout the state, and does the same for statewide primaries. Montana, by contrast, spells out that primary election days are not holidays.

What happens on the day

Polls typically open at 6 or 7 a.m. and close between 7 and 9 p.m., depending on the state. Many public schools close or switch to a teacher workday because their gyms and cafaterias are polling places, even in states with no holiday. Courts and the DMV close in observing states. The stock market trades as usual, and the Postal Service delivers. Early and mail voting have thinned lines on the day itself, but election-night returns, watch parties and news coverage keep the Tuesday at the center of the political calendar.

State-by-state differences

• Full paid holiday in even years: Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Rhode Island and West Virginia.
• Primaries too: West Virginia also releases employees on statewide primary day; Montana does not.
• Every year instead: New York and New Jersey treat Election Day as a state holiday annually, which is covered on the Election Day page.
• Delaware extra: Return Day, the Thursday after the election, is a separate half-day holiday in Sussex County.